Free Blown Circuit by Lars Guignard Page A

downtown. I’m talking about the surrounding areas as well, industrial infrastructure, ports, everything.”
    Manhattan smoldered in the simulation. Buildings had been reduced to heaps of rubble, smoke and fire everywhere. There was no way anything with a heartbeat could have survived.  
    “There is one ray of sunshine, though,” Crust said.
    “It’s going to have to be good after that.”
    “The weapon that can do this, the Tesla Device, the Dragons haven’t found it yet. We think they’re close, but so far, it’s still out there.”
    I reached into my pocket and pulled out the journal.
    “So scan this and send it to the tech team. And give them this other stuff too. I’ve got a scarf, blood, photos.”
    I pulled the daypack out of the larger pack, handing it to Crust.
    “My dad was on that ship. I didn’t bust my ass last night, just so this stuff could gather dust.”
    “I’ll get it to Langley ASAP,” Crust said. “But we need to think about the other problem. The problem with the mole.”
    “You keep talking about a mole,” I said. “But you haven’t said where the leak was going? A mole for who?”
    ”Who else?”
    I stared at Crust in the pale light of the computer screens.  
    “You’re kidding me. Are you telling me that Jean-Marc reported to the Dragons?”  
    “It’s the only thing that fits. Like I said, several weeks ago, we noticed that information was being leaked. Now we’ve confirmed that leak and after your encounter with Jean-Marc, we know that the mole is dead. The thing that’s working in our favor is that we’re fairly certain that the Dragons haven’t met their mole. All our intel suggests it’s been a data leak all along. They’ve got no ID on their asset other than a codename— Raptor .”
    “You’re fairly certain?”
    “Better than fairly certain. Very certain. They don’t know that we’re on to them, and they have no idea what their asset looks like. That puts us two steps ahead. You know what two steps ahead means in the spy game?”
    “Ahh, shit,” I said. I knew what it meant.
    “Welcome to the world of the double agent, Mike. From this moment on you report to the Dragons.”

Chapter 15

    O F COURSE , BECOMING the new mole was easier said than done. The mole had been communicating with the Dragons via a secure message board. The CIA knew because they’d found the message board. What they hadn’t found were the messages, except a single post which the mole had failed to delete. Nor did they know what kind of communication protocols may have been set up in case he was compromised. As a result of the undeleted message, though, they did know his next point of contact—a woman, working for the Turkish Secret Police. What business Jean-Marc had had with her and what business she might have, if any, with the Dragons, was unclear, but on the balance of probabilities, it looked as though it was a blind first meeting. Which was why Crust had asked me to take Jean-Marc’s place.
    I knew there were a million things that could go wrong. For one, the undeleted post could be a setup by the Dragons. Bait in case Jean-Marc was compromised. For another, we had no idea of the communications’ protocols that had been used to date. Anything that varied from a predetermined pattern could alert the other party. Finally, and most obviously, after the China Op, the Dragons were now aware of who I was. If the contact was connected to them in anything but a tertiary manner, my going in could raise a significant flag.
    The other side of the equation was that the CIA needed to place an agent and they needed to do so quickly. Short of Crust going in himself, I was the only alternative. There was time to familiarize myself with the Tesla Device and the threats of its use to date, but not much else. After scanning the journal and uploading it to an anonymous CIA drop box, I cleaned myself up and went out to meet my contact.  
    The meet was set for a location in Taxsim Square,